Learn about the video file formats that you can import and edit in Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC.

About video file format support in Lightroom

Some video file formats—such as MOV and AVI denote container file formats rather than denoting specific video data formats. Container files can contain data encoded using various compression and encoding schemes. Lightroom can import these container files, but the ability to import the data that they contain depends on the codecs (specifically, decoders) installed.

By installing more codecs, you can extend the ability of Lightroom to import/play some of the video file types. Many codecs installed into the operating system (Windows or macOS) work as a component inside the QuickTime or Video for Windows formats. Contact the manufacturer of your hardware or software for more information about codecs that work with the files that your specific devices or applications create.

Note:

Dolby audio decoding: On Windows 7, Lightroom Classic 7.0 (Oct 2017 release) and later releases do not support Dolby audio decoding as this OS version does not include the media package required to decode AC-3. Adobe Creative Cloud apps now use native OS support for Dolby Digital decoding and no longer feature encoding for Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus sound formats. Both Windows and OS X operating systems (Windows 8.1 or above and Mac OS X 10.11 or above) contain native support for Dolby decoding functions. Please update to the latest version of your operating system. For more information, refer to Adobe Creative Cloud apps use native OS support for Dolby.

Apple QuickTime: The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team has issued an alert recommending that Windows users uninstall Apple QuickTime from their computers. Apple has also announced that it will no longer be providing security updates for QuickTime on Windows. After uninstalling QuickTime, video thumbnails may not be generated in Lightroom and some codecs may become unavailable for import and playback. For details, see Windows | Impact of uninstalling Apple QuickTime.

Supported video formats and extensions

These versions of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom let you import video clips in several formats and perform extensive edits on them.

Video formats supported

AVI (See the note below)

MP4

MOV (See the note below)

AVCHD

Note:

AVI files on macOS: Beginning with Lightroom Classic CC 8.0 and Lightroom CC 2.0 (October 2018 releases), you can no longer import new AVI files on macOS. The existing AVI files in your catalog play as expected in Lightroom CC and in a separate window from the Library Loupe view in Lightroom Classic. On Windows, the support for AVI files is still available.

HEVC (.MOV) files: HEVC video files are supported for import and playback on macOS High Sierra (10.13) only. On Windows and earlier macOS version, the support for HEVC (.MOV) files is not available. For more details, see this article: HEVC files support.

Extensions supported

MOV

M4V

MP4

MPE

MPG; MPEG-1 and MPEG-4 compression formats only

MP4

M4V

AVI (Windows-only)

MTS

3GP

3GPP

M2T

M2TS

Note:

Videos with .MPG4 extension: Beginning with Lightroom Classic CC 8.0 and Lightroom CC 2.0 (October 2018 releases), videos with .MPG4 file extension are no longer supported on both macOS and Windows. As a workaround, you can rename the file extension to .MP4 using Finder (Mac) or Windows Explorer (Win) and then import the video file.

If your video file is not one of these formats, Lightroom can't open it. Videos are only supported in the Library module. You cannot open them in any of the other modules, including Develop or Slideshow.